12 secrets for growing eggplant
August 5, 2022 25 Comments
Eggplant, one of the summer’s favorite vegetables that we enjoy in unique recipes, from the famous moussaka, the wonderful shoes to the Little Asian imam baildi.
A key ingredient of Mediterranean cuisine and a vegetable with high nutritional value, eggplant contains a multitude of antioxidants, fiber and vitamins.
We avoid eating eggplant raw, due to its relatively bitter taste as well as solanine, a toxic substance it contains when harvested prematurely.
Eggplant cultivation has several similarities with tomato cultivation and pepper cultivation as they belong to the same group of vegetables, the solanaceae.
The eggplant forms characteristic purple flowers that give us its wonderful fruits, while its leaves have a smooth upper surface while the lower surface is relatively fluffy.
And if we don’t have a garden, we can grow eggplant in a pot on the balcony.
Let’s see in detail which eggplant varieties we can plant and what care they need to enjoy the most delicious eggplants, fresh and delicious, from the garden to our kitchen.
1. What are the most popular eggplant varieties to plant?
There are many well-known varieties, local traditional and hybrids of eggplant to grow.
We prefer eggplant varieties that are adapted to the conditions of our region to ensure good production and preserve seeds that we can plant next year.
The most popular traditional eggplant varieties grown in our country are the following:
- Eggplant Lagada: Eggplant variety with long narrow dark purple fruits, quite productive.
- Syros Flask Eggplant: A variety of eggplant with a round fruit shape and deep purple color.
- Teardrop Eggplant: Productive variety of eggplant with characteristic teardrop-shaped purple fruits.
- Tsakonic eggplant or Argos eggplant: Popular traditional two-color variety with white and purple stripes that does not taste bitter.
- Santorini Eggplant : Excellent variety with impressive white round fruits and delicious taste, much sweeter than the other varieties.
Tsakoniki, Argos eggplant with the characteristic stripes
2. What conditions does the cultivation of eggplant need to give us a rich production?
Eggplant cultivation grows best in areas with a warm climate.
It needs more heat than tomato cultivation and pepper cultivation and is more sensitive to low temperatures and frost.
Eggplants produce best in loose, fertile soils that are rich in nutrients and have good drainage to remove excess water from irrigation.
When preparing the soil for cultivation, before planting, we plow the garden and incorporate enough organic matter into the planting pits in the form of compost and digested manure, as well as complete organic fertilizer.
Eggplant plants grow to a height of up to one meter and usually do not need staking.
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3. How do we create eggplant plants from seed?
Eggplant is propagated by seed collected from the fruit of the plant when it is ripe enough.
It is important to preserve our own eggplant seed so that we can grow every year knowing the special characteristics of each variety.
Eggplant seeds are slow to germinate, as are tomato and pepper seeds.
Eggplants are planted from late spring to mid-summer.
So if we want to create our own eggplant plants from seed, we make a seedbed in late winter or early spring.
Under ideal conditions of 20°C temperature and relative humidity, the eggplant seed needs at least 2 weeks to germinate, and another 5 weeks for the new eggplant plant to be ready for transplanting.
4. When do we plant the eggplants and at what distances?
Eggplant planting starts from April onwards, in spring but also at the beginning of summer when the temperature has risen noticeably.
The exact planting time depends on the variety and the weather conditions prevailing in the growing area
When planting eggplants in our garden, suitable planting distances for the crop are 50–70 cm between plants and 80–120 cm between planting lines.
We avoid planting the eggplants densely to achieve better ventilation of the plants, more sunshine and limiting the development of fungal diseases, which has a positive effect on increasing and improving production.
Planting distances for vegetable crops
5. Can we plant eggplants in a pot on the balcony?
If we do not have available space in the garden, eggplant can be easily grown in a pot on the balcony, the yard and the terrace. It is enough to choose the suitable sunny spots on the balcony that have a south or west orientation and are protected from strong winds.
Eggplant plants are relatively short growing and we don’t need large pots to plant them.
We choose pots with a diameter of 25-30 cm that have holes in the base and place a thin layer of 3-4 cm of gravel or pumice stone at the bottom of the pot, to drain away the water.
To fill the pots in which we will plant the eggplants, we choose a special potting soil for vegetables, enriched in nutrients. Alternatively, we make our own mixture to plant the eggplants by mixing peat, manure, perlite in a volume ratio of 2:1:1.
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6. How often does the eggplant crop need watering?
Eggplant cultivation has significant water needs and requires regular watering in order to be efficient and to give us quality fruits in large quantities.
In the spring season, we water twice a week. In the hot summer season, eggplants need watering every 2 days.
As is generally true for watering vegetables, a suitable watering system for our eggplants is the system of drip pipes. It ensures efficiency and economy in watering, while at the same time limiting the growth of unwanted weeds (weeds) that make it difficult for plants to grow.
Lack of water can create significant problems in the cultivation of eggplant that needs constant watering, especially in the hot summer months.
During the flowering period of the eggplant, if we neglect watering, we may notice a drop of flowers and a decrease in production.
In the fruiting stage, insufficient watering results in the eggplants becoming bitter in taste.
7. How often do we add fertilizer to the eggplants?
The cultivation of eggplant has important needs in nutrients to give us a good production and it necessarily needs fertilization.
To enjoy eggplants with a rich sweet taste, every 3-4 weeks we add a complete organic fertilizer fortified with potassium that helps to produce quality and tasty fruits that do not get bitter.
Potassium, what it offers as a fertilizer to plants and crops
Additionally, we add calcium fertilizer to the eggplant culture. as the lack of calcium is quite common and can cause the dry top phenomenon, in which the fruits turn black at the edges and do not ripen normally.
8. What diseases and insects affect eggplant cultivation?
Tetranychos is every year the most important problem for eggplant cultivation. As soon as temperatures begin to rise in the middle of the summer, the four-fingered beetle lingers, attacking the leaves and fruits of the eggplant.
For the biological treatment of ringworm we use sulphur, either in powder form or in wettable form for spraying.
Sulfur is also effective in the treatment of powdery mildew, the main fungal disease affecting eggplant cultivation.
Dealing with tetranychos in the garden
To deal with mealybugs, thrips and mealybugs, we spray every 2 weeks with organic insecticides that we get from agricultural stores, such as potassium salts and natural pyrethrin.
Alternatively, to protect eggplant plants from insects at a preventive level, we can use homemade materials, and make an ecological preparation to spray the foliage of the plants by dissolving 1 tablespoon of green soap in 1 liter of water.
9. Does eggplant cultivation need pruning?
Outdoor eggplant cultivation shows vigorous growth and gives good production without the need for pruning
To facilitate better ventilation of the plant, we only do small operations by removing the low leaves that are close to the ground and those that are old and yellowing.
10 When do we harvest eggplants from our garden?
The eggplant is harvested approximately 2.5 months after transplanting in our garden depending on the variety and the weather conditions of the area.
We collect the eggplant fruits at a stage that is not fully ripe, when they have firm flesh and a shiny color.
When harvesting, we make sure to cut the fruit with part of the stalk to have a better preservation of the eggplant until we consume it.
There are many varieties of eggplant to try
11. How do we best preserve eggplants at home?
Eggplant fruit is best preserved outside the refrigerator. In a cool place, with a temperature of 15°C and a high relative humidity of 90%, eggplants can be kept for a period of 2 weeks without problem.
To preserve eggplants in the refrigerator, make sure to wrap them in paper. Otherwise, due to the low temperatures, the flesh softens and the quality of the eggplant fruit deteriorates within a week.
If we want to preserve eggplants for several months, an easy way is to cut them into small slices, boil them for a few minutes in salted water and then store them in the freezer.
Ripe eggplants with the characteristic purple color
12. And one last secret about eggplant
In areas with mild winters, eggplant plants can be preserved and bear fruit the following year by keeping the plants during the winter and pruning in early spring.
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